the core

I was a psychology major in college and minored in human resource management. People interest me: their thoughts, their personalities, their motivations, their "behind-the-scenes" that makes them unique. While I didn't go on to graduate school or pursue anything in the counseling end of things (I went the HR route instead), I still find myself a better listener than talker and a better observer than leader. If I could hide behind a 2-way mirror and people watch, I would enjoy that as a pastime every now and then. We humans are just so different from one another, but yet when you dig down to the very core of us, we've come from the Hand of the very same Creator. Case in point, my daughter - so different from me. She has a quota of about a million words a day to fill, while I have about a quarter of that. (While I think my husband's quota is actually more than mine, he too finds her desire to chat head-shakingly humorous. Along the rabbit trail topic of word quotas, I just have to link to this article about men vs. womens "typical" scenario of word quotas. Interesting data.) Ok, back to where I was going... the dynamics of who she is as an individual combined with my responsibility to guide her, teach her, discipline her, love her, etc. can come so instinctively easy or can sometimes leave me puzzled, feeling like I am reading the instructions to one game yet playing another. Just because she is my offspring does not mean that she will think like me or respond to things like me. However, at her very basic genetic makeup is a (sorry but it's true) sinful individual who has a giant need for a Savior, same as I (we all) started out. I've been finding the responsibility of child-rearing so immensely intimidating lately that I forget the basic need of her life is to turn from relying upon self to reaching for a Savior. I've been so caught up in how I (& her dad) can do/say/model the right things of raising her when I have jumped to the very thing I want her to see is useless. If she doesn't see a humbling of myself to the Lord, then how will she ever realize her need? Our similarities and differences affect our day to day relationship, but if I would remember that under that talkative little seven year old is a heartbeat started by the very same God that started mine, I will be better prepared to teach her what really matters.